Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Rangers’ goalie Henrik Lundqvist remains out of the lineup with a neck injury, telling reporters on Monday that he’s hoping he can return by the weekend. He suffered the injury in a collision with teammate Ryan McDonagh during a game against the Penguins last week.

But while the collision caused the injury, what happened next grabbed the headlines. Frustrated at the lack of a whistle, Lundqvist took matters into his own hands by flipping the net to cause a stoppage.

It was a controversial move, one that fellow goalie Marc-Andre Fleury referred to as “baby stuff”. And while Lundqvist is standing by his actions, we’d bet that deep down he’s probably second-guessing himself, wondering if there wasn’t a more productive way to get the official’s attention.

Luckily, we’re here to help. There’s a long history of goaltenders trying to get their point across to the men in stripes. Some of the methods have worked, and others have been less successful. But it’s important for Lundqvist and his brethren to know that they always have options. Here are five other ways they could get a referee’s attention.

Wailing away on the goal posts

If we’re being honest, Lundqvist’s net got off easy last week. It just got shoved over. The traditional angry goaltender move is to hack it death with your goal stick.

This move is such a classic that there’s no shortage of examples to pick from. Mike Smith is probably the modern day master, and Patrick Roy could do a number. But with all due respect to those guys, nobody ever did it better than Ed Belfour.

That goal knocked the Blackhawks out of the 1993 playoffs, completing a shocking sweep at the hands of the underdog Blues. Belfour didn’t appreciate being bumped on his way back to the crease, and he let referee Rob Shick know about it.

After destroying his stick and tossing it in Shick’s direction, Belfour then reportedly “destroyed everything in his path on the way to the dressing room”, including an unfortunate coffee maker. According to this article, the meltdown left behind a “mangled fan sticking out of the top of a garbage can.” I assume that meant a cooling device and not an actual spectator at the game, although with Belfour you could never quite be sure.